Summary of Final Technical Report - EDEA Project

Coordinator: Consejería de Fomento, Vivienda, Orden ación del Territorio y Turismo, Gobierno de Extremadura.

Partners: Intromac, Agenex, Valladares Ingeniería a nd GOP Oficina de Proyectos. The main objective of the EDEA Project is develop a methodology to design and

construct housings in Extremadura with energy saving criteria, sustainability and renewable energy use.

This Project began with the support of the LIFE+07 Programme, looking for the

improvement of the quality in the areas of construction and energy by promoting energy efficiency practices, so that all the stakeholders become aware and build properly; for reducing energy losses and CO2 emissions of buildin gs that generate problems on climate change afflicting our planet.

To achieve the general goal Experimental Demonstrator in Energy and Architecture

(EDEA) have been built in Cáceres, next to Quality Control Laboratory in Construction, as a research laboratory for testing energy efficiency m easures in real time and of the full scale.

Demonstrator in Energy and Architecture (EDEA)

Phases that have been carried out along four years are as follows: Phase 0: Project management An horizontal management system has been carried out from the beginning to the end of

the Project, following all agreements reflected in the Grant Agreement. This system is composed of the Project Steering Committee (PSC) and the Project Evaluation Committee (PEC). This structure has ensured the proper functioning of the Consortium and the fulfillment of the objectives set out within the period specified, using ICTs to improve the quality of management and efficiency.

Phase I: Construction of the houses The EDEA Demonstrators have two housings similar to social housing in

Extremadura with over 300 sensors , different installations and renewable energies , which make them a very flexible Demonstrators for testing many improvement measures (also

called strategies), and finally check whether they are suitable for housings and for homeowners or renters.

The Experimental Demonstrators on Energy and Archit ecture “EDEA” consist: - Two demonstrators-housings called Pattern Housing a nd Experimental

Housing. - The building of the efficient installations and ren ewable energies called

Energy Site. - The Solar and Wind Energy Site. - The Interpretation Center.

Phase I includes the construction of all spaces listed above, ie, building of housing and implementation of conventional and renewable energy facilities, as well as the work required to monitoring demonstrators and control facilities, and tests, both passive and active.

Some of the installations that have been implemented in EDEA are biomass heating

system, heating and cooling by a geothermal system, heat pump, condensing boiler, ground-to-air geothermal exchanger, solar thermal, solar photovoltaic and wind energy to produce electricity. A complex remote management system allows all facilities to be controlled remotely.

Remote management and monitoring system to control all EDEA facilities remotely

We have hired 8 tenders that have meant more work for both coordination and partners.

From the economic point of view the task of coordination and procurement of works and installations that are part of this phase have been a 48% of the total project. This economic volume allows us to understand the workload that has had this task, in addition to considering the most important task and has been most difficult to develop. The term has been around the full project, during the four years.

Who have participated in the execution of works and installations? Prior to hiring it was necessary to draft the implementation of housing and facilities, GOP

and VALLADARES have been responsible respectively, the monitoring has been conducted by the Research Centre CIEMAT. Subsequently, the coordinator has hired the companies that carried out the works: PLACONSA, UTE ARCOEX-EXTRACO, G5, POLITEX and TABICOEX.

Once awarded the work, the project management was carried out by the authors of the project, but also other partners have participated in follow-up, due to the difficulty of complex and innovative systems that have been executed, and automation and control installations.

In this phase we have obtained a greater extent than initially planned, the number of facilities implemented were increased for this, an 120 m2 energy site were built and on the deck of Quality Control Laboratory were built a wind energy site. Also joined the project collaborating companies that offered their technology and knowledge. Throughout the construction EDEA were visited by industry professionals.

Visits in Experimental Demonstrators on Energy and Architecture

The main difficulties encountered were the dependence between Government departments for the procurement of works, slowing it down; the technical difficulty of the executed installations and collaboration of companies forced to make changes in the performance of the installations. All these difficulties were finally successfully solved.

Phase II: Obtaining, exploiting and maintaining res ults It was coordinated the development a set of previous studies that had to be developed

as the completion of the building drafts, economic feasibility studies, construction systems and materials, projects, project managers, etc.

To define the building, its design and construction, the materials, systems and

installations have been selected by means of conducting analyzes, simulations, assessments and designs depending on a multitude of requirements. All with the vision of a multidisciplinary team , necessary and important in this Project. All partners have participate.

Deserve mention some previous studies such as Sunlight and Climate Studies

developed by CIEMAT or the thermographic studies carried out by VORSEVI. Also several students and teachers from University of Extremadura have participated with technical studies about the bioclimatic construction mainly.

Solar study of EDEA Demonstrators

Also it is important to mention the collaborations undertaken by Centre for Energy,

Environment and Technological Researches (CIEMAT), Polytechnic University of Madrid, University of Extremadura and the Institute of Construction Science Eduardo Torroja of CSIC (IETCC). It also note that a large number of companies related to construction and energy have been involved at regional, national and international level.

A lot of theoretical and real results was been obtained, they have been analyzed and

exploited. The great value of this action has been the exploitation of actual results, ie data obtained from monitoring and control when performing the tests. The data is on line and can be downloaded by any researcher and anyone interested in their studies. Getting that success has been a great effort in own human resources. Also of note is the involvement in the exploitation of data by private companies and collaborators, as well as college students and EDEA project partners.

Besides, in demonstrators-housings have been analyzed which passive strategies

generate best results to reduce energy demand and what active strategies are more

sustainable. Also has been developed a tool for assessing the sustainability of the materials , that objectively assesses the sustainability of the different constructive solutions or passive strategies applied to EDEA, considering the life cycle of the building.

INTROMAC is solely responsible for the development of the methodology for assessing

the sustainability throughout the duration of the EDEA project, over the years has been presenting the successive revisions. As an added value to the project has been the development of the methodology of active strategies for AGENEX, that initially was not raised. Studies have been made of 70 active and 15 passive strategies. As an added bonus has been the adaptation of the methodology to the Directive 2010/31/EU.

In these phases have been identified strategies to reduce building energy consumption.

These can be passive or active, passive strategies are those that improve the construction and design of the building while active strategies improve efficiency and CO2 emissions of energy facilities.

Some of the passive and active strategies that have been selected, theorist simulated

and/or real tested are: increase of insulation, improvement of ventilation, shading devices on windows, solar chimney, biomass heating system, solar thermal, ground-to-air exchanger, geothermal system, thermoactive slab, etc.

Entities that made active and passive strategies theorist simulation are: CIEMAT,

AGENEX, Gobierno de Extremadura, Acciona and UPM. Over 5000 simulations have been development both active and passive. With the results of the simulations, we have quantified the advantages or disadvantages of each strategy have been quantified while maintaining comfort levels for users and economic parameters have been analyzed to determine how much time energy improvements are amortized. A highlight was the presentation of the results of theoretical experiments in 2010 and the publication of results, this task has continued afterwards as this methodology has been applied to materials and systems of the corporate partners.

The coordinator directs the action of passive and active tests and is responsible for

coordinating and organizing the collection of data on comfort conditions of homes. Having identified, studied and simulated different strategies, they are executed and tested in demonstrators-housings to know their real behaviour. Nine tests have been developed under EDEA Project, and they must solve some targets:

- Improve dwelling users habits.

- Studying and setting up facilities and installations in Extremadura weather.

- Checking simulations results.

- Checking indoors comfort reached in each case, also energy savings.

- Studying environmental and economical savings.

Real tests developed list could be read below: Passive strategy test 1: Inefficient ventilation behaviour. Passive strategy test 2: Air quality. Passive strategy test 3: North façade insulation improvement Passive strategy test 4: Windows solar incomes.

Active strategy test 1: Air renovation quality versus heat pump heating. Active strategy test 2: Heat pump-Fan coils installation consumption and performance Active strategy test 3: Geothermal-Fan coils installation consumption and performance Active strategy test 4: Biomass heater- radiators installation consumption and performance Active strategy test 5: Biomass heater- Under floor heating installation consumption and performance

The conclusions have been published in the Methodological Guide on Sustainability that consists of four notebooks about generalities concerning EDEA Project, good practices of sustainable building materials, energy systems and recommendations for users. Specifically in the notebook 4 the results are fully developed; this information is very useful for dwelling users, also technicians and construction agents. The main achieved relevant results are :

Passive strategies tests have demonstrated optimal windows opening timetables in order

to make a sufficient ventilation at homes, without decreasing energy efficiency. Insulation thickness increase have been studied, checking temperature changes and comfort improvements. A huge blinds study have been made in order to check what blinds timetable and open-close behaviour is more optimal. Also an air quality study have been developed in order to know air pollution level limits at homes.

Active strategies tests have studied economic costs for every thermal installation

developed, also with different set ups: heat pumps, biomass heater, geothermal ventilation… As well as indoor comfort have been studied using different installations: air conditioning, radiators, under floor heat, comparing results each other, consumption, temperatures, homogeneity obtained, etc. Finally energy sources have been studied in order to know combustible volume needed, optimal electrical rate, installations set up and many other variables. There have also been maintenance actions required for testing and have the systems and installations correctly at any time.

Energy consumption in experimental and pattern housings during one of testing

The measurement and control system of Demonstrators EDEA allows the testing of

energy strategies and analyzing their results; these data are available to professionals, companies and researchers and can be viewed online every time. The availability of Experimental Demonstrator in Extremadura allows to develop practical studies, in a way towards innovation and development, towards entrepreneurship and job creation. 33600 data have been analyzed on each real test daily and it is important to note that the conclusions of all studies and tests have been published and several workshops have been made to the presentation thereof.

Through EDEA has been promoted public and professional participation and of all agents that work in the construction area, contributing to the selection of the best strategies for this climate and to the development of a sustainability methodological guide aimed at the good practices for social housing in Extremadura. EDEA have made available to the society as an infrastructure to test and propose energy saving so lutions to promote quality improvement in building and extract interest lessons for later application on real buildings.

Phase III: Dissemination Numerous outreach efforts have been conducted to raise awareness of the project , its

progress and results through seminars, courses, visits of the Interpretation Center EDEA, participation activities with the university, and online training, etc.. Some facts to note are: Approximately 800 people visited the Interpretation Centre EDEA, more than 20,000 visits on the EDEA website (www.proyectoEDEA.com), more than 80,000 visits on the websites of partners to know about project, the total number of people involved through other media is greater than 5000, it has trained more than 500 people, more than 50 companies have collaborated from different areas of the construction sector.

Dissemination of the EDEA Project